EFG Hermes continues its leading position globally, with exceptional performance across all geographies in which it operates and covers, consistently leading some of the world’s most prestigious research surveys
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, 11 June 2018 -/African Media Agency (AMA)/- EFG Hermes, a leading financial services corporation serving institutional and individual investors in frontier emerging markets, has for the first time been ranked as the number one frontier market brokerage firm in the Extel Survey 2018, advancing from the 9th place last year. The nod from the high-profile industry survey comes just two years into EFG Hermes’ drive to expand beyond the Middle East and North Africa into frontier emerging markets.
Ali Khalpey, the London-based Chief Executive Officer of EFG Hermes Frontier
Prior to this prestigious ranking, EFG Hermes was named the top Africa Ex-South Africa Equities House at the Financial Mail Top Analyst Awards 2018, solidifying its strong presence in the African market.
“Coming on the heels of our ranking as the top Africa Ex-South Africa Equities House at the Financial Mail Top Analyst Awards 2018, this industry recognition highlights the core strength of EFG Hermes Research manifested in its ability to respond rapidly to the significantly increasing demand for new investment ideas and strategies amid the ever-changing dynamics of markets and economies,” said Ali Khalpey, the London-based Chief Executive Officer of EFG Hermes Frontier. “Our strategy is to match our growing execution capabilities with world-class research that meets the needs of our clients. Beyond EFG Hermes’ strength as a research house in the MENA region, this is proof that our calculated investments into frontier expansion has paid off and underscores our unmatched strength in new geographies that we have entered within the past two years.”
The commendation follows EFG Hermes Frontier’s recent entry into Bangladesh, bringing its direct presence to eleven markets across four continents. In addition to ramping up execution capabilities to cover more than 95% of markets on the MSCI Frontier Emerging Index, EFG Hermes has focused its frontier efforts on providing clients with world-class, on-the-ground research spanning African, Middle Eastern and Asian markets.
EFG Hermes Research also dominated the MENA regional analyst rankings, with nine of the firm’s analysts ranking in the top 20 – four of them in the top 10, including Elena Sanchez-Cabezudo (financials, #3), Mohamed Abu Basha (economics, #5), Hatem Alaa (consumer, #6) and Nada Amin (consumer, #8). Overall, EFG Hermes was the second-ranked firm in MENA and the top-ranked MENA-headquartered firm in the poll.
Ahmed Shams El Din, EFG Hermes’ Head of Research
Mohamed Ebeid, EFG Hermes co-CEO of the Investment Bank
“These accolades underscore the outstanding capabilities of our award-winning research team and mark the passage of another milestone in our transformation into a leading frontier player,” said EFG Hermes co-CEO of the Investment Bank Mohamed Ebeid. “We continue to seek the right opportunities to expand into high-growth frontier emerging markets, while focusing on consolidating our presence to create the right opportunities to serve our clients with a superior product offering across all markets.”
“Being consistently ranked in the top five in some of the world’s most important research surveys is a testament to our high quality standards and the firm’s overall focus on innovative products – a key component of our strategy. By the end of 2018, we plan on adding more than 35 African equities to our research coverage, in addition to new products covering strategy, macro-economy, and sector reports. Our clients can now trade banking and financial equities, while gaining insights from our research team, which covers banks in Kenya, Nigeria, Vietnam and the MENA region,” added Ahmed Shams El Din, EFG Hermes’ Head of Research.
EFG Hermes Research’s coverage universe currently spans all major frontier markets, with 65 stocks currently under coverage. In 2018, the division plans to expand coverage to over 100 frontier stocks in the financials, consumers, utilities, telecommunications and energy sectors. New markets on the coverage horizon include Georgia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Sri Lanka.
Firms ranked in the Extel Survey 2018 were selected from 506 sell-side firms, and over 10,500 investment professionals. In 2017, EFG Hermes ranked second out of 33 global and regional research houses in the Extel Survey for MENA while maintaining its position as the top research house in the MENA region.
Distributed by African Media Agency (AMA) on behalf of African Investor, Hubert Danso
About EFG Hermes
With a current footprint spanning eleven countries across four continents, EFG Hermes started in Egypt and has grown over 30 years of success to become a leading financial services corporation with access to emerging and frontier markets. Drawing on our proven track-record & a team of more than 2,900 talented employees, we provide a wide spectrum of financial services that include investment banking, asset management, securities brokerage, research and private equity to the entire region. EFG Hermes launched the NBFI Platform, EFG Hermes Finance, which will overlook activities in the non-banking finance field through EFG Hermes Leasing and Tanmeyah Microfinance. This comes in light of the Firm’s strategy to focus on two main pillars: product diversification and geographic expansion into frontier markets – which has seen the firm establish a physical presence in Pakistan, Kenya, Bangladesh & the United States.
For further information, please contact:
EFG Hermes Media
media@efg-hermes.com
May El Gammal
Head of Marketing & Communications
melgammal@efg-hermes.com
Note on Forward-Looking Statements
In this press release, EFG Hermes may make forward looking statements, including, for example, statements about management’s expectations, strategic objectives, growth opportunities and business prospects. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but instead represent only EFG Hermes’ belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature are inherently uncertain and are beyond management’s control and include among others, financial market volatility; actions and initiatives taken by current and potential competitors; general economic conditions and the effect of current, pending and future legislation, regulations and regulatory actions. Accordingly, the readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made.
All press queries to Peter Mokoko, ByDesign Communications – p.mokoko@bdcomms.co.za
